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To: AntiKev
Those are very interesting questions, all.

After alot of thought on the matter, I have concluded that the important thing about the universe isn't the electrons, the quarks, and the photons.

It is the patterns that are formed out of these things, and ultimately the only real difference between you and I are the patterns of our neurons, that reflect our experiences.
33 posted on 12/10/2005 5:27:21 PM PST by djf (Bush wants to make Iraq like America. Solution: Send all illegal immigrants to Iraq!)
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To: djf; Sam the Sham; Baraonda; RegulatorCountry; PJ-Comix; Williams; Former Proud Canadian
So continuing (and stealing some thoughts from your replies above)...

For those that said the transfer of knowledge is not enough, I pose a few questions...

Say we have a chip that enhances your memory. All it does is stimulates certain neurons to fire that enhance your recollection, giving you a perfect photographic memory. Now say I add a memory extension chip to that, it adds to the neurons that are already storing memories and it combines with them to store memories. Your experiences are now not completely in biological, nor artifical memory, but a combination of both. Say we continue this process as neurons die by replacing each neuron with an artificial one. At what point do you stop becoming you? Your physical form is still there, as are your experiences.

Now your heart fails, so it is replaced with an artificial one. Flesh is still there, now there is a machine pumping your blood. You lose an arm in an accident and it is replaced with a remarkably life-like prosthesis. The process continues until there is very little, yet still some, real flesh left on your body. Are you still you? Are you still alive?

I don't know. I'm not sure that anyone has the answer. The thing that makes this so difficuld, at least for me, is the fact that it's a gradual transformation. I don't know what causes conciousness. If it is the brain, if all of the information in a human brain is gradually transferred into computer memory, in your body, interacting with your biological brain, are you still you?

47 posted on 12/10/2005 7:20:58 PM PST by AntiKev (We pilots count our time in the air as if all other time is unimportant.)
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